From John O'Groats to Land's End
Naylor, Robert;Naylor, John
English
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FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN DURING HIS CANDIDATURE FORTHE REPRESENTATION OF THE CARNAVON BOROUGHS 1906
FROM JOHN O' GROAT'S TO LAND'S END
OR 1372 MILES ON FOOT
A BOOK OF DAYS AND CHRONICLE OFADVENTURES BY TWO PEDESTRIANS ON TOUR
LONDON
CAXTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED
CLUN HOUSE, SURREY STREET, W.C.
1916
FOREWORD
When Time, who steals our hours away.
Shall steal our pleasures too;
The memory of the past shall stay
And half our joys renew.
As I grow older my thoughts often revert to the past, and like theold Persian poet, Khosros, when he walked by the churchyardand thought how many of his friends were numbered with thedead, I am often tempted to exclaim: "The friends of myyouth! where are they?" but there is only the mocking echoto answer, as if from a far-distant land, "Where are they?"
"One generation passeth away; and another generation cometh," andenormous changes have taken place in this country during the past seventyyears, which one can only realise by looking back and comparing the pastwith the present.
The railways then were gradually replacing the stage-coaches, of whichthe people then living had many stories to tell, and the roads which formerlyhad mostly been paved with cobble or other stones were being macadamised;the brooks which ran across the surface of the roads were being coveredwith bridges; toll-gates still barred the highways, and stories of highwayrobbers were still largely in circulation, those about Dick Turpin, whosewonderful mare "Black Bess" could jump over the turnpike gates, beingthe most prominent, while Robin Hood and Little John still retained a placein the minds of the people as former heroes of the roads and forests.
Primitive methods were still being employed in agriculture. Crops werecut with scythe and sickle, while old scythe-blades fastened at one end ofa wooden bench did duty to cut turnips in slices to feed the cattle, and farmwork generally was largely done by hand.
At harvest time the farmers depended on the services of large numbersof men who came over from Ireland by boat, landing at Liverpool,whence they walked across the country in gangs of twenty or more, theirfirst stage being Warrington, where they stayed a night at Friar's Green, atthat time the Irish quarter of the town. Some of them walked as far asLincolnshire, a great corn-growing county, many of them preferring to walkbare-footed, with their shoes slung across their shoulders. Good and steadywalkers they were too, with a military step and a four-mile-per-hour record.
The village churches were mostly of the same form in structure andservice as at the conclusion of the Civil War. The old oak pews were still inuse, as were the galleries and the old "three-decker" pulpits, with sounding-boardsoverhead. The parish clerk occupied the lower deck and gave outthe hymns therefrom, as well as other notices of a character not nowannounced in church. The minister read the lessons and prayers, in a whitesurplice, from the second deck, and then, while a hymn was being sung, heretired to the vestry, from which he again emerged, attired in a black gown,to preach the sermon from the upper deck.
The church choir was composed of both sexes, but not surpliced, and,if there was no organ, bassoons, violins, and other instruments of musicsupported the singers.
The churches generally were well filled with worshippers, for it waswithin a measurable distance from the time when all parishioners were
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